Kat turned at the sound of the front door opening. She sighed in frustration.
"David, I will stand out here all night if I have to-""
Her eyes looked up, expecting to see David. But it was Kid Blink standing on the stoop, the light from inside lining his body. He was shirtless, wearing form-fitted long johns. His bare chest was wet and glistening, his damp hair hanging in his face.
His expression was hard and colder than the snow falling around her. His blue eye met hers, narrow and clearly not intending to talk to her.
But she saw hurt in the cold blue depth too, a hurt she had hoped she wouldn't see. She half hoped he wouldn't care that she was engaged to someone she didn't even know, would carry on with his life as if she hadn't touched it. But the other part of her hoped he would care…care, but not be hurt. But that was selfish of her to wish. She knew she hurt him, betrayed what trust they had had…if they had had any. She had betrayed him from the start.
His face broke her heart; the face she hoped to see the next day and the next, laughing together and discovering each other. She wanted to know every part of him. And seeing him standing there in nothing but his long-legged undergarments made her yearn for him even more. He was a young man, painfully handsome and possessing a rugged quality that none of the boys in her world had a dream of having.
Her breath was shaky, afraid of the estranged expression on his stone-like face.
"Kid Blink…please," she didn't know the correct combination of words to say to convince him to talk with her. She didn't know what words would calm his broken heart. She didn't know…
She didn't know him.
But something kept her feet stuck on the sidewalk, determined to stay there until he listened to her. She…cared so much for him, irrationally so. She felt it in her bones.
"You're in the wrong part of town, Kat," Kid said coldly. He wasn't even shivering. Kat had felt that kind of anger before too, the kind of anger that boiled your blood. She felt the heartbreak show on her face.
"Please," she breathed, her breath clouding her face. She was vaguely aware of the faces at the window above, newsies staring down at them.
"I wanted to tell you, but I-I didn't want to-"
"Hurt me?" he said with a glare. "So ya lied to me instead."
"That's not fair," she said breathlessly, shaking her head.
His eye flared and his jaw set hard, his teeth clenched together. The bands of muscle in his neck flexed all the way down to his stomach, hard as rock as fury washed over him.
"Fair? Ya wanna talk fair with me?" His voice boomed around her, echoing off the brick buildings and surrounding her. "Ya really wanna go there?"
She let out the breath she was holding, clouding her vision of him. Her cheeks were so cold, and his voice felt like a slap. She deserved it, she knew that.
"Poor Kat, with her horrible family an' house, all warm without a care in tha world! Don' try an tell me life's been unfair to you."
He seemed to stop himself, rubbing the back of his neck with his hand. His eye was sad, as if he regretted saying those things to her. But his hurt came back.
"Poor Kat...had ta lie to a street rat about her engagement to a man who can provide for her..."
He looked up and the coldness in his face struck her through the chest.
God, he was beautiful. Even in all his anger.
"How can I make you understand," she begged. "How can I make you see, I was miserable before I met you—I couldn't breathe. I had no choice. My grandmother made the engagement, convinced my father it was the right thing to do for me, to ensure my life in England-"
She stopped herself, seeing the flash of anger on his face.
"And you have no say in your future?" he said loudly, disbelieving. "You're just gonna marry someone because your grandmotha told you to?"
"I'm a woman in a society run by men," she said in a hard tone, feeling her own anger flare at his words. "Ask Ira, she knows exactly what I mean!"
Kid advanced quickly but stopped himself on the step before he reached the sidewalk, his eye flaring like a cold blue flame under his wet blonde hair. His dark eye patch made him look almost sinister.
She'd struck a chord, but she saw that he knew she was right.
Kat shook her head, "I've fought her 'til I'm blue in the face. I don't want this! How dare you think I wanted this over you!"
His jaw hardened as he looked at her. For a moment he saw sadness and something else in his expression, breaking through the stone...tenderness? She felt her heart hammering away in her chest.
"This is how women live, this is how we can chase our own dreams—marry well to whomever your family chooses for you and spend the rest of your days with someone you don't even know, just so you can survive..."
His expression darkened, "Marry well?"
Her breath caught, "That's not what I meant... and you know it!"
She felt herself getting angry with him, his stubbornness. But he had the right to be angry, not her.
She stepped forward, her eyes pained from their pleading look. "Kid Blink-"
"Go home, Kat," he said quietly, turning away and closing the door, leaving her alone in the dark cold street. She felt the tears drip off her chin and hit the snow as she looked up, seeing the newsies' faces. She turned away, shutting her eyes tightly as she left her heart on their doorstep.